Thanks in part to the Facebook IPO, venture investors in 2012 saw their best return on invested capital in a decade. A steady rise in the ratio of portfolio company exit size to capital raised continued through the year.

During the year, 2,277 private tech companies were acquired globally, according to a study from CB Insights. While most of the deals were relatively small, or completed without a disclosed transaction value, eight of the companies were purchased for more than $1 billion.

Cisco Systems said it would acquire privately held Meraki Inc., a San Francisco cloud networking startup with investors including Sequoia Capital, Google and DAG Ventures. Cisco will pay about $1.2 billion in cash and retention-based incentives. Meraki’s offerings will expand Cisco’s product portfolio in the midmarket.